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Daily Photo – Abandoned North Korean Prison in… New Zealand?!?

I’ve always wanted to get up to this place, but it has been virtually impossible since they closed all the roads years ago.

And yes, it’s right here in Queenstown, New Zealand, atop Deer Park Heights, a huge mountain that can be seen from pretty much everywhere in the valley. It might not look like a mountain next to the Remarkables, but it is huge. Everything in New Zealand is so epic that you lose track of the scale of things. For example, did you know that they make Cinderella’s castle in Disneyworld look bigger by using a forced perspective trick by making the upper spires much smaller than they would normally be? This is what happens with the relatively “small” mountains around here. So you’ll see Deer Park Heights and think, “Oh, I could climb that thing myself!” Well, maybe you could, but you won’t make it down by nightfall.

So, WHY, I hear you wondering, is there an abandoned North Korean prison in Queenstown? It was actually built as a movie set for a movie in the 80’s by Disney. It was called “The Rescue” — and it was horrible. The plot involved a bunch of young boys who had to rescue their dads who had gotten themselves imprisoned in North Korea. I think it skipped the theaters and went straight to airplanes, along with Miss Congeniality 4.

How was I able to get up here and take about 20 new friends? I cannot say!